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With all due respect to the previous poster: the dog park opponents seem to ignore the simple fact that it has been the City of Oakland that has been working on this project for 14 years. Instead, the opponents simply characterize the dog park as an unrealized dream in the heads of volunteers.... rather than the efforts of the Parks and Recreation Department, Department of Public Works and City Council Member offices.

The Lakeshore Homeowners Association complained that it was not "consulted." Really? The Association prides itself at being closely associated with council member Pat Kernighan. Pat's constituent e-mail newsletters featured announcements about this very project over the years. Safe to assume that the association knew about it.

So...where does the "consultation" fit into the larger picture? Before or after the public hearings? Did the Association have an expectation that a consultation with it's private group would negate the Parks and Recreation Commission decision? Or did it assume that a consultation from a private entity would simply eliminate the need for a public hearing altogether?

I was not surprised by the civil and subdued tone. The anonymity of yahoo neighborhood listservers can create pretty toxic forums that are not reflective of an Oakland population who already know how to share and play nice. Reasonableness and goodwill will prevail and life will go on.

Some people still recall the high anti-farmer's market melodrama that took place in that very same neighborhood 10 years ago. The drama got so perverse that the Montclarion’s political cartoonist depicted the situation this way: local merchants were the damsels in the distress tied up on a rail road track, the people who successfully saved the park (Eastshore Park Preservation Association) were depicted as Snidely Whiplash and the Farmer's Market Steering Committee was the runaway train.

I still have that cartoon framed and hanging in my office.

My fellow farmer’s market steering committee members were so delighted we formed a little human train and “choo-hoo-ed” through the market the day after the cartoon was published.

Long story short, the market was a success and the opponents have slowly rewritten the informal history over the years had now in front of the parade claiming ownership of the market success.

I imagine once the dog park is installed, life will return to normal and for that particular neighborhood, another melodrama will divert the community’s attention elsewhere.

I am trying to wrap my mind around the opposition's complaint of "Well nobody asked me." The City of Oakland DID ask for community feedback, over and over and OVER again. It was presented as part of the Lake Merritt Master plan at community open houses that went on ...for years. The dog owners honored the community planning and feedback process, vetted the plan with multiple agences for over decade and a half...made changes to the plan accordingly. The uncivil and mean spirited comments made by the anti-dog park folks (a few seem to be encamped on more than one server) has frankly given this dog owner the heebie jeebies. As an ex-elementary school teacher, I only comment I can make is one I used to patiently intone to my 7 year olds: "Play nicely ...and share..."